Farhad seems to be late bloomer (in Bangladeshi standard, otherwise a cricketer should peak at age around 23). It prolly also helped him to concentrate on his batting than trying to be a batting allrounder (though I see Pilot still gives him the ball every now and then).

An all rounder who bowls off break...interesting. Career batting averages still look a bit suspect. Let him play in the NCL for a couple of more seasons. Definitely A team material though, from what I've read.

I'd still have a more polished 25/26 year old version than a 22 year old who fails then gets dropped forever. Unless, of course, people who have watched him play have seen something extraordinary in him (and I don't mean Dickens-like extraordinary).

depends what sort of talent farhad has, just being a rock or a wall isn't good enough these days, every batsman and allrounder needs to have boundary scoring strokes and needs to be able to take the singles to pressure the opposition. if he's another anchor type player with limited talent then is there much point of bringing him to the national team? if all we needed was a rock then raqbiul would be doing the job, raqibul just struggles to read the bowler/ball too much in test cricket.

Originally Posted by Only1raz
Who is this Farhad Hossain? 53, 159, 157 & 135 in 4 consecutive NCL games, can bat at 3, 4 or 5. Can he be the Mr consistent that Bangladesh are looking for in the Test arena?

Please can someone share more info on him?

Three consecutive centuries is great. He can be a very good Test player. The article on him was really touchy. I wish him all the success.

Originally Posted by Eshen
Farhad's stats clearly indicates him to be a grafter.

Gowza, even if Rock can pull himself together in ODI, he may still remain a big question mark in the Test team. So even as a grafter, Farhad does look like a worthy candidate to consider.

my stance on raqibul atm is that he can keep his one-day spot until someone more talented with some consistency comes along, his ability to accelarate the run rate is still a big issue though. when it comes to test cricket i think he has the temperament but atm just doesn't have the skills.

Originally Posted by Eshen
Naeem, Mahmudullah, Raqibul, Imrul, Zunaed, Rubel all spent a season or two in the academy before coming to the national team.

Not saying academy players are fine finished products, but many of them seem to have mental maturity to step up to the next level.

Yeah, this is what I was talking about. The mental hardness seems to be better suited for International cricket. Unlike the previous generation of players. Hopefully we will get even better players out of the academy in future.
PS: I would love to see how Anamul shapes up in 3-4 years.

Originally Posted by beshideshi
Yeah, this is what I was talking about. The mental hardness seems to be better suited for International cricket. Unlike the previous generation of players. Hopefully we will get even better players out of the academy in future.
PS: I would love to see how Anamul shapes up in 3-4 years.

it's a bit tough to compare the mental toughness of the previous generations and this one because the talent is clearly here for this generation whereas it wasn't there so much for the previous generation. previous generation may have been mentally tough but just didn't have the talent. i guess if you specifically take say ashraful then yearh they're mentally weaker but how many of the previous gen were anywhere close to ashraful sort of talent (very very few) and how many of this generation are (a decent amount have international quality talent now)?

i'm all for trying new players when they've played enough and shown enough but with BD cricket that's not really enough, you have to gauge the talent as well. raqibul was averaging around 40/45 in FC cricket before entering the test team and look how he's performed, we've been shown that domestic dominance by itself is not enough in BD, you also have to have a look at the player and make sure the talent to survive in international cricket is there (that means being able to develop further and being able to turn into an all situations player).

jahurul hasn't done so badly either, not many are talking about bring him into the national team.